Cuban trade embargo? Not
for Vermont cows
Amid debate over trade
sanctions, a little-known exception allows
farm exports, like apples and milk.
By Sara B. Miller | Staff
writer of The
Christian Science Monitor, October 21,
2004.
They share a rural identity - one is a
spread of rolling farms, the other of tropical
plantations. They boast of their collective
resourcefulness - one endures the harsh
winters of the Northeast Kingdom, the other
the unreliability of ancient cars and empty
grocers.
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Now their relationship has become formal:
Vermont expects to send its first shipment
of dairy cattle to Cuba at the beginning
of next year. The move is part of a $7 million
deal that would bring cows, powered milk,
and apples - among the makings of the Vermont
brand - to the Caribbean nation. Maple syrup
and cheddar cheese could be next.
A pioneer in everything from civil unions
to Canadian drug imports, Vermont is making
its move on the heels of a number of states
that have broken into a market long blocked
by US foreign policy. More than 40 years
after the embargo was formed and sustained
through 10 administrations, the United States
has become the No. 1 supplier of food to
Cuba. Even as the Bush administration continues
to tighten the money flow into the nation,
US soybeans, peas, apples, and gum, stubbornly
make their way through.
"The amount of commerce has gotten
pretty substantial," says William LeoGrande,
dean of the School of Public Affairs at
American University in Washington. "Cuba
and the US are natural trading partners,
and if the embargo were lifted, the amount
of trade between [them] would be enormous."
What's more, the support for such trade
comes from an unlikely source: Republicans,
who are putting pragmatics above politics.
"Farm-state Republicans have led the
charge on this," says Dr. LeoGrande.
By 2000, with pressure from political leaders
and their constituents, President Clinton
signed a bill authorizing the US to sell
food to Cuba. There are stipulations: Trade
is one-way and cash only.
President Fidel Castro Ruz initially balked,
calling the policy discriminatory - until
hurricane Michelle ravished the nation in
2001.
The first US ship arrived in the port of
Havana that December. Since then some 35
states have sent off any number of products.
There is some disagreement over the dollar
amounts, but John Kavulich II, president
of the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council
in New York, puts Cuba's purchases at $139
million by the end of 2002. In 2003, that
number had jumped to $257 million. As of
September of this year, they had purchased
$277 million, says Mr. Kavulich.
Vermont's agriculture secretary, Steve
Kerr, will travel to Cuba in early November
to finalize selling 50 Holstein and 50 Jersey
heifers. He also hopes to entice Cubans
into buying the state's McIntosh apples
and powdered milk.
Mr. Kerr says that many Vermonters had
no idea that trade was permitted. "It's
not on anybody's radar screen," he
says. Aside from a few angry e-mails he
says he's received from Cuban-Americans
in south Florida, the deal has presented
virtually no controversy in Vermont.
"I think it's wonderful, " says
Pam Sweeney, a resident of Montpelier who
formed the Vermont Cuba Coalition with friends
after a trip there in 1989. Its purpose
was educational, to get the Vermont public
to see Cuba and Cubans as real and progressive,
just like their Vermont counterparts. "Farmers
are suffering in Vermont, and Cubans need
food," she says.
Still, calls to end sanctions rankle some
Cuban-Americans. And Frank Calzón,
director of the Center for a Free Cuba in
Washington, warns that sales are acceptable
only as long as the US never sells to Cuba
on credit. He worries that Mr. Castro would
not pay back: "The American taxpayer
would end up picking up the tab."
For many, however, the new Vermont deal
is just another sign of a symbiotic relationship
- from migration, to a shared currency,
to a love for jazz rhythm and baseball -
that cannot be artificially stunted. "Cuba
is closer to the US than almost any other
Latin American country," says LeoGrande.
"It's amazing that despite all these
years of government-to-government hostility,
there is just such a close relationship
people to people."
Copyright
© 2004 The Christian Science Monitor.
All rights reserved.
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